Tom Norton
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Tom Norton Apr 09, 2007 0 comments

All the clichs are in place. New coach with a checkered past and something to prove. Down-on-its-luck team. Hostile, meddling townsfolk. The big game. You've seen it all before.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Tom Norton Apr 09, 2007 0 comments

There's nothing like a great dragon movie. And, as the old saying goes, this is nothing like a great dragon movie. But it is an interesting one.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Tom Norton Apr 09, 2007 1 comments

A Scanner Darkly may be animated, but take that R rating seriously. This is not a film for the kids. There isn't a furry animal in sight, and certainly no talking penguins.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Tom Norton Apr 09, 2007 1 comments

I'm not sure how you write a screenplay designed to show the origins if the CIA and its operations up to and including the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961. But I'm reasonably certain that no one in Hollywood has an inside track to the straight story, despite research into volumes full of speculation and unverifiable leaks. The true history of the CIA and the details of its operation are not exactly found in the public library or on the Internet, and for good reasons.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Tom Norton Apr 09, 2007 2 comments

With its computer animated video and up-to-the-minute audio mix, Happy Feet is far more dazzling technically than March of the Penguins. Here we have the same sort of penguins as before, but with a smaller species thrown into the story as well. The life-cycle/survival situation here is the same, but in this film it's a backdrop for the plot. The penguins here are a lot more communicative. They talk, sing, and dance almost constantly. Or rather, Mumble, our hapless hero, dances. While the other penguins sing, he can't warble a single tuneful note. But he's Gotta Dance.

Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Tom Norton Apr 09, 2007 0 comments

Thanks to two remarkable films, I've learned more about penguins in the past few weeks than I ever thought I needed to know. The first, March of the Penguins was a surprising hit when it played theatrically in 2005, winning an Oscar that year as the best documentary feature. The second, Happy Feet (review following), won an Oscar as the best animated feature of 2006.

CES 2008
Tom Norton Jan 17, 2007 1 comments

CES 2007 has now come and gone, but, as always, the themes first played there will linger on through 2007 and beyond.

CES 2008
Tom Norton Jan 11, 2007 1 comments

Panasonic's heart may be in plasma displays, but the company also launched a new line of LCD rear projection TVs at CES. There will be six models, three of them 1080p and three 720p. Each series will be available in 61-56-and 50-inch sizes. But the big news is that they all will use a new form of projection lamp, called LiFi, from LUXIM. This lamp is said to provide a much longer life than current UHP lamps, with a faster startup time and a wider color gamut that challenges the color available from the LED lamp-replacement that is just starting to show up in other RPTVs.

CES 2008
Tom Norton Jan 11, 2007 0 comments

Atlantic Technology has modified its flagship System 8200 THX Ultras2 speaker line. The revised version, the 8200e, does away with the pedestal subwoofers and replaces them with a passive pedestal/stand. The system may now be set up with the user's choice of subwoofer(s), such as Atlantic's THX-certified 642eSB ($1000). This change lowers the height of the speaker by about 10 inches. The side panels are now fixed instead of removable, and there is only a single finish available— gloss black. The 8200e C three-way center channel speaker also has fixed side panels in the same gloss black finish, plus a slightly modified crossover said to smooth the response in the lower midrange for improved dialogue reproduction. A complete 8200e 5.1-channel system starts at $10,000.

CES 2008
Tom Norton Jan 11, 2007 0 comments

In-wall subs are a fast growing category, and BG has its own wrinkle on the concept. The company's new BX-4850 in-wall subwoofer consists of four modules, each of which contains 12 micro-woofers. One of these modules is shown in the photo. The four modules may be positioned together in the room or separately, and an on-wall version may also be made available. The 12 micro-woofers are each separately enclosed and face each other in pairs. The bass generated by them fires out from the center of the array, through the opening between the left and right sets of drivers, and into the room. Mechanical vibrations are largely cancelled out due to the opposing drivers, minimizing the transmission of bass into the walls, which can muddy the bass and transmit low frequencies to the structure of the room and into other parts of the house.

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